Tuesday, December 3, 2024, 7:09 p.m.
Salvador Gomar, top leader of the Valencian Federation, entered the electoral race this Tuesday to become a candidate for the elections for the presidency of the Spanish Football Federation (FEF), against Rafael Louzán (Galician Federation), convicted of prevarication and repudiated by the Government, and Sergio Merchán (Extremadura Federation), dolphin of the disqualified Pedro Rocha. Gomar has decided to back down and run in the elections scheduled for the 16th, while Juanma Morales, the only candidate from outside the FEF, has been left out of the fight by not having obtained the 21 endorsements required to be proclaimed a candidate. .
The new president of the FEF will therefore be one of the barons of the FEF, representative of the established power in an organization characterized by the clientelistic system and that has seen how its last three top leaders have been disqualified: Ángel Villar, Luis Rubiales and Pedro Rocha. On the closing day of the application submission period, Salvador Gomar, a member of the FEF board of directors since December 2018, took the final step by obtaining 26 endorsements, among them, from the presidents of the Basque, Balearic, and Andalusian territories. and Castilian-La Mancha.
Faced with the president of Valenciana and the threat that a candidate from outside the FEF would emerge that would jeopardize continuity, Louzán has obtained 55 supports, while Merchán has reached 25. In the case of Louzán – pending a resolution of the Supreme Court after being sentenced to seven years of disqualification from holding public office – could not make his candidacy official, the elections would be reduced to a battle between Merchán and Gomar.
The president of the Valencian Federation has been supported by the sector of assembly members who oppose perpetuating the power established in the FEF. Among the 19 territorial presidents who do not accept Louzán or whoever was the general secretary of Rocha in Extremadura, Merchán, is the top leader of Guipuzcoana. Manu Díaz publicly laments that “the electoral process in the FEF elections is medieval and absolutely manageable” and demands that the federative body, always under suspicion, recover its credibility.
Meanwhile, with the CSD on standby, Miguel Galán, scourge of Villar, Rubiales and Rocha, has already decided to file a challenge before the Sports Administrative Court (TAD) to overthrow Louzán’s candidacy, and also a complaint against Merchán for breach of neutrality when requesting both endorsements from the AFE footballers’ union.
